Thankful for: Readers who give a hoot

Curt tips his hat to the civic-minded

Hellooooo Tucson,

Happy Thanksgiving week!

We’re giving the team the week off to work on future stories and big projects, including our Great Migration off of Substack to a new home.

But we didn’t want to leave you hanging all week.

So each of us at Team Agenda wrote a little thank-you note to our readers.

We kicked it off yesterday with Joe talking about how glad he is to be back in the journalism game again.

Today, Curt is sending a big thank you to the readers who talk back.

Every time we send out a reader survey, I get such a thrill hearing what you all have to say.

Since we sent out our most recent one on Friday, I’ve been checking every few hours to see what’s on your mind and what you think we could do differently.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to send a hearty “Thank you!” to everybody who took a minute to fill it out.

If you haven’t yet, you can do it here.

We’ll chew on your comments over the next few weeks as we plan out next year’s coverage, just like we did with our survey last November.

But today is about giving thanks, not talking about next year. So I want to take a moment to explain why I appreciate readers filling out our surveys.

Hank and Curt making a promotional video a few years ago.

We spend all our time trying to deliver the best possible newsletter to your inboxes. It’s a labor of love and I could write page after page about how grateful I am to get to do it.

But the way the news business works, we end up “saying” far more on our side of the reporter-reader conversation. Social media, email and comments on newsletters (Thank you to our regular commenters!) all help, but they don’t even come close to balancing the scales.

Already, we’ve gotten so many useful responses like this:

“More investigative reporting, y’all really shine there.”

“Frankly, I’d like a more serious tone.”

“Form an unbiased consortium of civic groups now established”

And some that made me chuckle, like this response to “What can we do to help you get more involved in civic life?”

“Nothing, I am a public figure.”

I guess that’s about as involved as you can get, right?

That’s another reason I like these surveys. They’re a way, albeit a small one, for people to engage with civic life.

Filling out a survey might not sound like a lot, but at least for a moment you’re not back on your heels, fending off an unrelenting wave of scary information. You’re on your toes. You’re adding your two cents to a larger conversation.

It’s not earth-shattering. But it’s not nothing, either.

So I want to thank all of you for giving us your two cents.

And while I’m at it, I want to thank a much larger group: people who give a hoot.

Thank you to all of you who make sure to stay on top of the news, show up at city council meetings to speak at call to the public, take to the streets to protest, or volunteer your time for political causes.

You all show me that civic life is still going strong, and it’s still essential that we keep reporting the news.

If you want to have a more direct reporter-reader conversation, you can reach me at curt@tucsonagenda.com.